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Beef A-LA-mode

A slow‑cooked beef stew with bacon, vinegar, herbs, and vegetables, finished with port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Beef A-LA-mode

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dip bacon slices in vinegar, then coat with a seasoning mix of salt, black pepper, allspice, clove, and chopped herbs.

  2. Make deep holes in the beef for larding, rub with seasoning, and bind tightly with kitchen twine.

Braise

  1. In a well-tinned pot, add the beef, fried onions, carrots, turnip, celery, and water.

  2. Simmer gently for 10–12 hours, turning the meat twice until extremely tender.

  3. Remove the beef and keep it covered.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the gravy, remove fat, and combine with the beef and port wine.

  2. Remove the twine.

  3. Serve with vegetables or cut into dice for garnish.

  4. Optionally, stew roasted onions with the gravy.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Allspice + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Thick flank of beef
Long, slow braising breaks down connective tissue, making the meat very tender and sliceable.
Fat bacon
Melting fat and larding strands keep the lean beef moist and add savory flavor during the long cook.
Vinegar
Its acidity helps tenderize the bacon and brightens the flavor of the braising liquid.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the gravy, rounding out the acidity and savory notes.
Onions
Fried brown, they add sweetness and deep color to the gravy.
Celery
Releases flavor and body into the braising liquid as it softens over the long simmer.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 10–12 hours. A gentle, low simmer lets collagen slowly convert to gelatin, making the beef tender and enriching the gravy. A hard boil toughens the meat and makes the liquid cloudy and greasy.

Swap the chive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, vinegar, pepper, allspice, clove, parsley, thyme):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, vinegar, pepper, allspice, clove, parsley, thyme. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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